Page 349 - The Chief Culprit

294 y Notes to Pages 46–52

rounds. e German shell’s initial velocity was higher than the Soviet one. Combined with excellent
sights and optics, this gave it superiority over the IS-2 in precision. e Panther’s armor-busting round
weighed 6.8 kg and had an initial velocity of 925 m/s. e sub-caliber shell weighed 4.25 kg and had an
initial velocity of 1,120 m/s. e armor-penetrating shell of the IS-2 had a lower initial velocity—790
m/s; however, the weight of the round was monstrous for that time—25 kg. e muzzle energy of the
122-mm gun on the IS-2 was one and a half times higher than the corresponding one on the Royal
Tiger, two and a half times higher than the Tiger, and almost three times higher than the Panther.
One good shot from the IS-2 redeemed the shortcomings of its gun. In October 1943, during tests
at the Kubinka testing grounds near Moscow, an IS-2 with an armor-busting shell broke through the
frontal armor of the Panther from a distance of 1,500 meters, then, having excess energy, the round
went through the transmission, the armor wall of the weapon section, the engine, and even then, there
remained so much energy that the round tore off the back armor wall of the body along the seams and
threw it back several meters. e IS-2 tank gun was especially superior when engaging unarmored tar-
gets. e high-explosive fragmentation shell of the IS-2 weighed 25 kg against the 7 kg of the Panther
shell. In general, what the IS-2 was needed for was not fighting Panthers and Tigers, but for breaking
through the enemy’s defenses. e main burden of fighting the heavy German tanks was assigned to the
tank destroyer SU-100.
22. Colonel Franz Halder, War Diary, 1939–1942 (Moscow: Voyenizdat, 1971), entry for June 24, 1941.
23. “Military and Numeric Composition of the Armed Forces of the USSR,” Statistical Almanac, no. 1
(June 22, 1941) (Moscow: Military History Institute, Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation,
1994), 241.
24. Guderian, A Soldier’s Memoirs, 121.
25. K. Galitsky, e Years of Hard Trials (Moscow: Nauka, 1973), 79.
26. A. I. Rodimtzev, Motherland, ese Are Your Sons (Kiev: Politizdat, 1982), 291.
27. World War II Almanac, 1931–1945 (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981), 164.
28. Steven Zaloga and James Grandsen, Soviet Heavy Tanks (London: Osprey, 1981), 12–13.
29. Liddell Hart, ed., e Soviet Army (London: Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1956), B.H.122.
30. Zaloga and Grandsen, Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two, 175.
31. Hermann Hoth, Panzer Operations (Moscow; Voyenizdat, 1961), 360.

Chapter 10
Epigraph: Adolf Hitler, August 4, 1941, quoted in Guderian, A Soldier’s Memoirs, 256.
1. Domestic Armored Vehicles: Twentieth Century, 1: 17.
2. Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two, 261.
3. Domestic Armored Vehicles: Twentieth Century, 1: 17. In 1934 the USSR produced 3,556 tanks of all
kinds and modifications; in 1935: 2,994; in 1936: 3,905; in 1937: 1,558; in 1938: 2,270; in 1939:
3,034.
4. Krasnaya Zvezda, January 17, 1998.
5. Domestic Armored Vehicles: Twentieth Century, 1: 17.
6. “Military and Numeric Composition of the Armed Forces of the USSR,” 241.
7. Krasnaya Zvezda, January 17, 1998.
8. J. F. Milsom, Russian BT Series (Surrey, England: Profile Publications, Ltd., 1971).
9. M. Bariatinsky and M. Kolomiets, Light Tanks BT-2 and BT-5 (Moscow: Modelist-Constructor, 1996),
16; M. Bariatinsky and M. Kolomiets, Light Tank BT-7 (Moscow: Modelist-Constructor, 1996), 15; M.
Pavlov, I. Zheltov, and I. Pavlov, Domestic Armored Vehicles (Moscow: Hobby Kniga, 2002), 182.
10. Pavlov, Zheltov, and Pavlov, Domestic Armored Vehicles, 182.
11. Meltiukhov, Stalin’s Missed Opportunity, 525.
12. Voyna I Revolutsia [War and Revolution], September-October, 1934.
13. In October 1939, the 6th Armored Brigade (more than 250 BT tanks, commanded by Colonel M. P.
Pavelkin) rode from Khalkhin-Gol to Urukhan covering a distance of 670 km. e ride was conducted
with tracks removed and the tanks moving on wheels. It took thirty-nine operational hours for the ride
to be completed, covering 150 km per 24-hour period on average. e brigade was awarded the Red
Banner Order. It shows how impetuous and dangerous BT tanks could have been in breaking through
an enemy’s territory in case of a sudden blitzkrieg kind of war.